Outside Doctor Who, Sullivan amassed a reasonably large resumé of comic work in the British comics industry, particularly during the 1990s. However, he had, by his own admission, a considerable — and unwanted — lack of work in the industry during the latter part of that decade and the first half of the 2000s.[1] Moreover, unlike most prominent Doctor Who Magazine artists, he never really "cracked" the American market to any significant degree — though it's unclear whether he has ever harboured ambitions in this direction.

Contents

Sullivan trained as a wildlife and technical illustrator at Barnfield College. He went on to work as a graphic artist for British Aerospace[1] and spent some time in the advertising industry working freelance.

In 1988. with John Higgins' support and encouragement, he entered the world of comic books. He began with cover artwork for Marvel UK's Transformers comic title. Interior work for the Transformers 1989 Annual and other Transformers publications swiftly followed. Even at this early stage of his career, he displayed an affinity for drawing the Daleks, since he once illustrated a 1989 Transformers in such a way as to imply that Octus could change into a Dalek.

Sullivan's first Doctor Who comic strip was Planet of the Dead, which gave him the opportunity to draw all the Doctors that existed at that time. While drawing this strip, he came to hold the opinion that the Second Doctor was his favourite to draw. Thematically, however, he is strongly associated with stories involving the Daleks. He regards Nemesis of the Daleks as his favourite Doctor Who strip. Children of the Revolution, a sequel to Evil of the Daleks, gave him the opportunity to combine his love of Daleks with his enjoyment of the Second Doctor, who appears in flashbacks. His long-term artistic study of the Daleks has given him some authority to opine on what makes them work. He is an avid admirer of the TV Century 21 work, and has claimed a dislike for Davros, at least as seen in the original series.

...this lazy introduction of one-character-to-portray-a-whole-race is exactly what I don't like in SF. It emasculated the Daleks as an independent force; downgraded them to Ogron status. Remembrance redressed the balance a bit, but if [Davros] never tuns up again I'll be pleased. I'm a Yarvelling and Zolfian man.Sullivan speaking before the 2005 relaunch of Doctor Who[1]

Sullivan has actually done more Doctor Who work outside of DWM. He was the sole penciller and inker for the Radio Times comic strips, which were the global debut of the comic Eighth Doctor. In these strips, he also co-created the characters of Stacy Townsend and Ssard, the first companions of the Eighth Doctor outside the television movie. These strips were further unique for their format. Sullivan is the only artist to draw for what could comfortably be classed as a "Doctor WhoSunday comic strip".

Sullivan's most consistent run of illustrative work, however, came when DWM began their so-called "comic previews" of newly-released Big Finish audios. Existing somewhere between actual comic strip and simple illustration, this artwork attempted to give a flavour of an important moment within the audio. All told, Sullivan did about 23 of these, starting with 2000's The Fearmonger and continuing consecutively through the Big Finish release order to 2001's The One Doctor.

These exceptions aside, though, most of Sullivan's Doctor Who work outside the pages of magazines has been in online content. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, when his Doctor Who comic strip work had all but disappeared, he was actively illustrating some of the BBC's most prominent Doctor Who web content. He was responsible for much of the artwork in the webcasts, Death Comes to Time, Real Time, and Shada. At the start of the BBC Wales version of the programme, when the official Doctor Who website gave new front page illustrations for each week's new episode, he did the artwork for the premiere weeks of The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances.